»
TRUMPETWATCH
THE
SADDAM ★ ★ ★
DESTROYER
DEBATE
Is His Name Really
in the Bible?
BY EDDIE SAX
“
Listening here to
Irvin try to justify
his interpretation of
the 5th Trumpet, I
cannot help but almost laugh in sadness,” wrote Politics & Religion listener
Bryan Russell. “It is laughable that you
think Saddam Hussein is the
'Destroyer'. He is nothing but a two-bit
dictator who has been put into the dustpan of history. The 5th Trumpet is just
a little bigger than he and a two-bit
country like Kuwait. Gimme a break.”
Bryan, we hear you. Your comments
are not without merit, and in light of
Saddam’s recent capture, you may not
be alone in your observation. Is
Saddam's name really in the Bible? This
is the question at hand, and it is now,
for obvious reasons, one of our most
commonly asked.
In case you are not sensitized to the
controversy, here is the background. In
Revelation’s description of the 5th
Trumpet—verse 9:11 specifically, we
read, ”And they had a king over them,
which is the angel of the bottomless pit,
whose name in the Hebrew tongue is
Abaddon, but in the Greek tongue hath
22 EN DTI M E MAGAZI N E JAN / FEB 2004
his name Apollyon.” According to
Strong’s Concordance, Abaddon
(Strong’s Hebrew
dictionary, word
#11) means “destruction,” as in
the sense of utter
destruction and
Captured former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein speaks in Baghdad Sunday Dec. 14,
having no way to
2003 in this image from television. Top U.S. administrator in Iraq, L. Paul Bremer, conflee from the
firmed the capture of former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein in a dirt hole under a farmdestruction. Apolhouse near his hometown of Tikrit, eight months after the fall of Baghdad.
lyon (Greek, #623)
AP PHOTO / US MILITARY VIA APTN
means “destroyer,”
as
in
fully
destroyed. Some
Bible translations simply name the 5th take a second look at this fulfillment of
prophecy without allowing preconceived
Trumpet king, “the Destroyer.”
The events described in the 5th Trum- notions to cloud their ability to see and
pet bear an eerie similarity to what hap- evaluate the evidence. Let’s do this. We
pened during the 1991 Gulf War, and will start at Harvard University.
the name Saddam translates into EngHarvard speaks
lish as “the Destroyer.” And so—
Dr. Wheeler M. Thackston, Jr. at HarIf Saddam, in fact, means the
Destroyer, and if the events of Saddam vard University is Professor of the PracHussein’s life and the Gulf War indeed tice of Persian and Other Near Eastern
fit the description given in the 5th Languages. He is the information
Trumpet, then skeptics should at least source of a 1998 article posted on MSN’s
TRUMPETWATCH
Slate website, “What’s the Name of
Saddam Hussein?” by Bruce Gottlieb. The pertinent quote—
“[Saddam] is derived from the
Persian word meaning ‘crush.’
‘Saddam Hussein’ is best translated
as Hussein-Who-Crushes-Obstacles
or Hussein-the-Destroyer.”
In 2002, the History Channel ran
a documentary on Saddam that
says his name means “one who
confronts.” Is this consistent with
Hussein-Who-Crushes-Obstacles?
Is Dr. Thackston wrong or are both
translations correct? Evaluate the
evidence below and be your own
judge. Don’t worry about choosing
the right answer. Your salvation is
not waiting behind Door #3.
Here are the facts as I discussed
them with Dr. Thackston by phone
in December. Saddam is Arabic.
The History Channel is correct; it
means confrontation. “But,” he
added, “confrontation in a particular
way—like a tank driving over you.”
He explained that the actual form
of the word saddam is “an intensive
noun.” As a name, it indicates someone who does something intensely or
continuously. This applies to attributes as well, like intensely bad or
intensely good. In particular, according to the Arabic dictionary on Dr.
Thackston’s desk, saddam means
bump, strike, knock, bash, bounce,
bang, run into something, collide, clash—
you get the idea. Saddam does all of these
things intensely.
Confrontation in this sense of the
word is how one derives the meaning of
Saddam’s name as Hussein-WhoCrushes-Obstacles or Hussein-theDestroyer. “He confronts you in the way
a locomotive would confront you on
impact,” said Dr. Thackston. “It would
crush or destroy you.”
Sometimes in translations, a word
will have several possible meanings,
depending upon which one the translator judges is more appropriate for the
context. This man is a full professor at
Harvard and I’m not arguing. Our
research shows that both translations
are valid.
German Tribune & Jerusalem
Post: Saddam “the destroyer”
ENDTIME
editor, Irvin Baxter relates:
In 1991, I subscribed to the
German Tribune. In an article on
the Gulf Crisis I noticed that it
spoke of Saddam “the destroyer”
Hussein. “Why did they say ‘the
destroyer?’” I wondered. My mind
immediately went to Revelation
9:11. Not yet understanding the
meaning of the trumpets, I wrote it
off as coincidence. But I clipped
the article anyway... just in case.
In December 1997, I received
in the mail my Jerusalem Post
Weekly
International
Edition
(December 13 issue). One particular human-interest story caught my
attention. It was about one of the
very last Jewish families that had
just escaped from Baghdad. One of
the women told the story about
when Saddam Hussein was being
carried by his mother in pregnancy.
She was having horrible problems.
The Iraqi doctors actually recommended an abortion. Saddam’s
mother did not want that, so she
moved into the Jewish sector of
Baghdad where the finest doctors
lived. They nursed her through the
pregnancy.
When he was finally born, his
mother decided to name him
Saddam, since he had caused her
so much pain. The article specifically said that the name Saddam
means “the destroyer.”
The most powerful thing about
the Jerusalem Post article was that
the Jewish Iraqi woman was telling
her personal story, including how
the Jewish community nursed
Saddam’s mother through her diffi-
LUCKY NUMBERS:
12 14
AND
While this political cartoon by Gary
Brookins of the Richmond Times
Dispatch (VA) depicts what the USA
Eagle did to Saddam Hussein on 1214-03, it also brings to mind a scripture–Revelation 12:14: "And to the
woman were given two wings of a
great eagle, that she might fly into the
wilderness, into her place, where she
is nourished for a time, and times, and
half a time, from the face of the
serpent." In this passage the
woman represents Israel and
the eagle, which most likely
represents the United
States (see Daniel 7:4),
comes to Israel's aid. On
12-14, the eagle eliminated one of the woman's
worst enemies.
EN DTI M E MAGAZI N E JAN / FEB 2004
23
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»
SPECIALFEATURE
cult pregnancy. She was not discussing the Bible but was simply
telling about her experiences while
living in Baghdad.
The 5th Trumpet prophecy
explained
“Destroyer” is not ENDTIME’S pet
translation. It is not an attempted force-
fit to draw from prophecy a meaning
that just isn’t there. For the most part,
the Bible’s description of the 5th
Trumpet fits what happened in the Gulf
War like a glove, even to the point
where it names the king—Saddam.
Let’s take a closer look at the prophecy.
Since this has been covered at length in
previous issues of ENDTIME, here is the
Cliff Notes version.
Saddam the tyrant. Saddam the captive. ILLUSTRATIONS BY ENDTIME SUBSCRIBER CORBIN RUNNELS
Revelation 9:1-3 speaks of the smoke
of a great furnace rising from the bottomless pit darkening the sun and air.
The sun over Kuwait was not seen for
three months following Saddam’s devastating exit as he set 700 oil wells on
fire. Never before in the course of
human history has such a catastrophic
disaster occurred on earth.
Verses 9-10 describe locusts that
would come out of the smoke having
power as scorpions. The locusts are
depicted as having iron breastplates,
wings that sound like chariots and
many horses running to battle, hair as
women, faces as men.... It sounds like a
first century description of 20th century
helicopters.
Other aspects of the 5th Trumpet
prophecy match the events that took
place at the time. Several aspects cannot
be evaluated one way or another.
Some people may feel justified to discount all that we know for sure—the
staggering “coincidences”— because of
the things we don’t know or have no
way of knowing. And that’s okay. I’m
just here to share the facts.
(P.S. Salvation is behind Door #1.)
ROADMAP FOR PEACE
& THE FINAL 7 YEARS
VHS or DVD
Will the Road Map for Peace lead to the
event that the Bible says will trigger the
final 7 years to Armageddon?
You are presently witnessing what could
be one of the most important fulfilled
prophecies of all time. A new one-hour
video by Irvin Baxter.
The Confirmation of the Covenant
begins the final 7 years.
This looks very much like the
Confirmation of the Covenant.
more info check out our
» ForTEACHING
MATERIALS
section in the center of this magazine
24 EN DTI M E MAGAZI N E JAN / FEB 2004